Evolution in action: adaptation and incipient sympatric speciation with gene flow across life at âEvolution Canyonâ, Israel
In: Israel Journal of Ecology and EvolutionSearch for other papers by Eviatar Nevo in
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Various major evolutionary problems are still open, controversial or unsettled. These include even the basic evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation. The âEvolution Canyonâ model is a microscale natural laboratory that can highlight some of the basic problems requiring clarification (Nevo list of âEvolution Canyonâ publications at http://evolution.haifa.ac.il). This is especially true if an interdisciplinary approach is practiced including ecological functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics. Here I overview and reanalyze the incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation of five model organisms at âEvolution Canyonâ, across life: the soil bacterium, Bacillus simplex; wild barley, the progenitor of cultivated barley, Hordeum spontaneum; the tiny beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis; the cosmopolitan fruit-fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the Africa-originated spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus. All five models of organisms display evolution in action of microclimatic adaptation and incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation on the tropical and temperate abutting slopes, separated on average by only 250 meters. Some distant species converge in their micro-climatic adaptations to the hot and dry âAfricanâ, south-facing slope (SFS or AS) and to the cool and humid âEuropeanâ, north-facing slope (NSF or ES). Natural selection overrules ongoing inter-slope gene-flow between the free interbreeding populations within and between slopes, and leads to adaptive incipient sympatric ecological speciation on the dramatically opposite abutting xeric savannoid and mesic forested slopes.
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Evolution in action: adaptation and incipient sympatric speciation with gene flow across life at âEvolution Canyonâ, Israel
In: Israel Journal of Ecology and EvolutionSearch for other papers by Eviatar Nevo in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Various major evolutionary problems are still open, controversial or unsettled. These include even the basic evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation. The âEvolution Canyonâ model is a microscale natural laboratory that can highlight some of the basic problems requiring clarification (Nevo list of âEvolution Canyonâ publications at http://evolution.haifa.ac.il). This is especially true if an interdisciplinary approach is practiced including ecological functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics. Here I overview and reanalyze the incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation of five model organisms at âEvolution Canyonâ, across life: the soil bacterium, Bacillus simplex; wild barley, the progenitor of cultivated barley, Hordeum spontaneum; the tiny beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis; the cosmopolitan fruit-fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the Africa-originated spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus. All five models of organisms display evolution in action of microclimatic adaptation and incipient sympatric adaptive ecological speciation on the tropical and temperate abutting slopes, separated on average by only 250 meters. Some distant species converge in their micro-climatic adaptations to the hot and dry âAfricanâ, south-facing slope (SFS or AS) and to the cool and humid âEuropeanâ, north-facing slope (NSF or ES). Natural selection overrules ongoing inter-slope gene-flow between the free interbreeding populations within and between slopes, and leads to adaptive incipient sympatric ecological speciation on the dramatically opposite abutting xeric savannoid and mesic forested slopes.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 956 | 123 | 29 |
| Full Text Views | 39 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 41 | 0 | 0 |
